Following the continued habit of drinks removal by players at the ongoing Euro 2020 championship, UEFA has decided that going forward, teams could face fines if their players move drinks provided by sponsors at news conferences.
It will be recalled that Cristiano Ronaldo and Paul Pogba have done so in recent days.
On Monday, Portugal captain Ronaldo removed two bottles of Coca-Cola and encouraged people to drink water.
On Tuesday, France midfielder Pogba also removed a bottle of Heineken beer placed in front of him.
The next day, Italy’s Manuel Locatelli also replaced Coca-Cola with water.
As a result, UEFA has reminded participating teams that partnerships are integral to the delivery of the tournament and to ensuring the development of football across Europe, including for youth and women.
The tournament’s director, Martin Kallen, said players were contractually obliged “through their federation of the tournament regulations to follow”.
Kallen however said he understood the actions of players who, like Pogba, did such things for religious reasons.
He warned that teams have been reminded of their contractual regulations and Kallen said disciplinary action was “a possibility”.
UEFA does not intend to directly fine players and any sanctions are at the discretion of the national federations.
According to him, “We are never fining players directly from the Uefa side, we will do this always through the participating national association and then they could look if they will go further to the player, but we are not going directly for the moment to the player.
“We have the regulations signed by the participating federations.” continued
